SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engaging therapeutics, announced today that it has appointed Ms. Georgia L. Erbez as Chief Financial Officer. Additionally, the company announced that it has promoted Holger Wesche, PhD, from Senior Vice President, Research to Chief Scientific Officer.
“Ms. Erbez is a welcome addition to the Harpoon management team, as she brings substantial financial, operational and strategic advisory experience in both private and public biotech settings, as well as in investment banking, which will be an important asset to the company as it moves forward,” said Jerry McMahon, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Harpoon Therapeutics. “Additionally, I am pleased to announce Dr. Wesche’s promotion to Chief Scientific Officer. As the chief architect of Harpoon’s novel TriTAC™ technology, Dr. Wesche has spearheaded the company’s discovery research in T cell redirection. He has been a key contributor to Harpoon’s growth to a clinical-stage immunotherapy company with a robust product portfolio and lead drug in Phase 1 development for metastatic cancer-resistant prostate cancer.”
Ms. Erbez previously served as Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Zosano Pharma, a therapeutics company focused on migraine, from 2016 through 2018. She also served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Asterias Biotherapeutics and Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of Raptor Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to navigate the company through a growth period that included its first drug approval and subsequent commercial launch. Prior to Raptor, Ms. Erbez was a Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking at Collins Stewart, a Founder and Managing Director at Beal Advisors, and a senior level investment banker at Jefferies & Company, and Cowen and Company. She has also held positions at the investment banks Hambrecht & Quist and Alex. Brown & Sons. Ms. Erbez received a Bachelor of Arts degree, International Relations, from the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Wesche joined Harpoon Therapeutics in 2015 as Vice President of Research, and has more than 20 years of biotech experience focused on target validation, drug discovery, and drug development in oncology and inflammation. He was previously a Scientific Director at Amgen where he was responsible for the company’s next-generation T cell engager efforts that led to the discovery and development of multiple clinical development candidates. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Wesche held a leadership role in drug discovery and cell signaling research at Tularik. He is co-author of numerous publications and several U.S. patents. Dr. Wesche received his doctorate, summa cum laude, in Biochemistry and Immunology from the University of Hannover, Germany.
About Harpoon Therapeutics
Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that harness the power of the body’s immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases. T cell engagers are engineered proteins that direct a patient’s own T cells to kill target cells that express specific proteins, or antigens, carried by the target cells. Using its proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct™ (TriTAC), platform, Harpoon is developing a pipeline of novel T cell engagers, or TriTACs, and is initially focused on the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. For more information, please visit www.harpoontx.com.